Practice Advice for Cancer

I checked for a long time regarding your health. This is my advice:

1. You should do White Heruka retreat. (Of course, it is up to you whether you do this or not.)

2. Each month the students should recite the Golden Light Sutra at least once. They should dedicate it to your long life. The dedication can also include to prevent wars and fighting in the world today, natural disasters such as hurricanes and fires etc, difficulties in Burma, Pakistan, in essence, for world peace.

3. The Kangyur needs to be recited.

My very dear mother,
In order to bring living beings, who are suffering intensely, to full enlightenment, the perfected state of bliss, the essential path to be able to do this is:

1. compassion for all living beings, as well as

2. wisdom. Not only wisdom understanding what is right to practice and what is to be abandoned, but also ultimate wisdom realizing the ultimate nature of the self, the “I,” body, mind, and all phenomena.

These two are the very essential path among the other many realizations on the path to enlightenment. These two are the very essence, the root.

I heard that you have cancer and that you have no fear at all of death. That is a very good sign that you have lived your life with a good heart, and that you lived a good life. Having this mental state is the result of a good life. I wish everybody in the world could also think like this. How wonderful that would be, then there would be so much peace and happiness in the world and you would never hear even the word “war.” All beings would live their lives only benefiting each other, giving only peace to each other, helping each other, because of having a good heart and caring for others, as you have done, and also as your family is doing.

It is definitely beneficial if you can live longer in this human world, as you can help others and inspire others, rather than passing away. Your life is much more beneficial to the world if you continue to live. Therefore, I am suggesting this meditation to heal your cancer.

This is based on a very secret and special female aspect of an enlightened being. Also, it is a highest tantric deity whose name is Vajrayogini. This deity’s path is very simple, most profound, and very secret. It has all the most important and skillful techniques to overcome the cycle of death and rebirth, as well as all the sufferings, quickly, and to eliminate the subtle defilements quickly by achieving enlightenment, so that you can also enlighten other sentient beings more quickly.

Generate the purest motivation, called the altruistic mind to achieve enlightenment, by thinking that the purpose of your life is not just to achieve happiness in this life. Thinking like this doesn’t make my human life special, in fact, thinking like this is no different from how animals think, even tiny insects. Also, the purpose of my life is not to cling to this life’s happiness, that attachment is non-virtue and transforms every action into non-virtue. Therefore, the result is only unhappiness, even if you achieve a human rebirth, or deva rebirth (those beings who live in a higher realm and have a billion times more sense enjoyments than human beings), let alone if you are reborn in the hell realms, hungry ghost realms, or as an animal. So, this is not the purpose of living, not the real meaning of life.

Even if one is free from the circle of existence, the continuity of the contaminated aggregates, which are caused by karma and delusion (“karma” means action), circle from life to life and go on and on like this, and therefore one experiences the sufferings of the six realms again and again without end, until we stop the continuity of the aggregates circling.

If we are suffering then we cannot liberate others. For example, if you are blind you cannot lead others or help other blind people; if you are drowning then you cannot save others who are also drowning. Therefore, we must be liberated forever from this circling existence, these contaminated aggregates caused by karma and delusion. To achieve this total liberation for oneself alone is still not the true meaning of life. The real meaning of life is to benefit others, to eliminate others’ sufferings, and to cause others happiness.

This has four levels:

1. To cause happiness in this life for others. This is one level of benefiting others. The next level which is more important is:

2. To cause them to have happiness in all future lives. Then, more important than this is:

3. To cause others to be in the sorrowless state, which is total liberation from suffering and the circle of existences. Even more important than this is to benefit other sentient beings by:

4. Bringing sentient beings to full enlightenment, peerless happiness, by oneself alone. The purpose of our lives is to cause this happiness for others. That is why we have a human body, so that we can do perfect work for sentient beings, to enlighten them.

The only way to do this is first we need to be enlightened. That means one’s own mental continuum must become the omniscient mind. For that to happen you need to actualize the whole path to enlightenment, from guru devotion up to enlightenment, all the stages and paths, and offer service to others.

To be able to offer service to other sentient beings, one needs a long and healthy life. So, think: For the benefit of all sentient beings, so as to liberate countless sentient beings from suffering and its causes and to bring them to full enlightenment, I am going to meditate and perform the recitation of Vajrayogini. Use a picture of the deity Vajrayogini to help you.

Visualize Vajrayogini on your crown or in front of you. Don’t visualize the offering goddesses around Vajrayogini, just visualize the main deity in the center. Make strong requests to Vajrayogini:

Please purify all the sickness, spirit harm, negative karma, and defilements, without the delay of even one second. May I receive within me all the qualities of Vajrayogini, all the blessings, from guru devotion, the three principal aspects of the path, to enlightenment, the two stages of highest tantra, fully developed perfect omniscience, compassion, and power.

Feel Vajrayogini has perfect loving compassion for you. She sends white beams to you, like sunbeams, that totally illuminate you. Instantly, the cancer and other conditions, spirit harm, and causes of sickness, delusions and karma, are completely purified.

With this visualization, please recite this mantra:

OM OM OM SARVA BUDDHA DAKINIYE VAJRA VARNANIYE VAJRA VAIROCANIYE HUM HUM HUM PHAT PHAT PHAT SVAHA

I am sending you a mala. If you can recite three malas of this mantra, with a strong meditation, the purification can help you a lot. Probably in the past you had strong karma with this deity.

Hope to see you soon some time in the future. If there is anything you want to express or if you have any difficulties, please let me know. You are always in my prayers.

With much love and prayers...

1. 500 animal liberation practices

2. Take two Hayagriva pills (from Lama Yeshe). We can send these to you if you send us your postal address.

3. Take Gur Khyung three times a day for two weeks. (We can send this if you send us your postal address.)

4. Ask the Bati Khamtsen to do Gyabshi puja three times. Let me know if you need help organizing this, otherwise the geshe you know can do it.

5. Wear Hayagriva protection. We can send this, unless the geshe has it.

6. Ask the geshe to do Kago for him and to make ngag chu (water blessed with mantras) for him to drink.

7. Recite Black Manjushri mantra (mostly) and some Migtsema mantras.

8. Recite Heruka root mantra ten times.

9. Ask the geshe to do naga incense puja on the correct naga days in the calendar.

10. There is a prayer for the family members to recite for him called key ga na chi dug gnal dhog pa (reversing the suffering of birth, aging, sickness, and death). This may not have been translated, so maybe you can request the geshe to translate it if he is able to, and we can get a copy.

11. Do Medicine Buddha puja regularly and recite the long Medicine Buddha mantra. Also ask the geshe and the nuns to do this. Attached is very short version, where you visualize the seven Medicine Buddhas above your husband’s head, then recite the short mantra a few times, and then mostly the long mantra. There is also a link in this version to where you can get the correct version of the puja.

I have been doing many prayers and also pujas for him.

Also, he should take seven mani pills for five weeks. If no one has them near you, we can send them. Please let us know if you need them.

Take Hayagriva pills. We will send some from Lama Yeshe and some are from me. There are ten, so take two each week, space them out.

Ask Tsamlo Khamtsen in Sera Je to recite the Diamond Cutter Sutra 60 times, for his quickest recovery.

Also, ask Tsamlo Khamtsen to do Naga Torma (Lu Tor) and to continue until he hopefully recovers. They should do this on the naga days.

Dear Joanne,
These are the practices you should do:

1. You need to receive the lung for Hayagriva mantra. Recite this mantra as much as you can. I can give you the lung over the phone.
2. Chag-sum needs to be performed three times. This can be done by the geshe here.
3. A torma offering to the nagas needs to be done six times. You need to do this only on naga day, which you can check in the Tibetan calendar. Geshe-la can do this.
4. Take jüng-nga (Tibetan medicine) twice a day for seven weeks. This can be got from Nepal. The Kopan monks can bring it with them when they come.

Greetings and prayers. I did a lot of observations about your health and said this is what comes out best in my observations:

1. If you able to go to Kathmandu, spend 14 days in Boudha circumambulating Boudha stupa 40 times a day for 14 days, while reciting either Vajrasattva mantra or the long Chenrezig mantra. Visualize nectar coming out from the stupa (the holy Dharmakaya mind), coming into you, strongly purifying your negative karma, sickness (cancer), obstacles, and spirit harm. This is a most excellent thing to do. If you can do this, even if you die, there should be no regret, as you will definitely go to Amitabha’s pure land. Death happens to us all, so this is a really excellent thing to do for purification. Through one condition or another all our lives end. This practice is a most powerful retreat.

2. You need to take a long life initiation.

3. You need to recite the long mantra of Amitayus. Make sure you read the benefits sometimes, which is included in the practice.

4. You need to make 70 long life tsa-tsas. If you can’t arrange that where you live, let me know and I can organize it here, in Nalanda or by the Kopan nuns.

5. You need to have the la-küg tse-küg puja performed. If you are able to go to Kathmandu, then I can ask the Kopan monks to do this for you.  

Rinpoche's First letter, July 2006

Dear Elizabeth,
I checked this morning for your mother and what is best to do at this time. I advise the following:

• Arrange 11 Medicine Buddha pujas to be performed for her.
• Recite the Thirty-five Buddhas’ names. Visualize the Thirty-five Buddhas with nectar coming out from them and entering your mother’s body and mind. Think that she is totally purified. This is best to be done in front of her, so she can also hear the Buddhas’ names. Also, she can try to do the meditation. This came out the best practice for her.
• Make the three types of buddhas (Manjrushri, Chenrezig, Vajrapani) tsa-tsas. Make the same number as her age.
• Make 100 Vajrasattva tsa-tsas.
• Recite Vajrasattva mantra with her (or from a distance) 100 times.

I am making prayers for her, as well as the Sangha in my house.

With much love and prayers...

Student's letter, August 2006

Dear Rinpoche,
My mum had the kidney with the cancer taken out. She's now taking an injection of a drug every two days to deal with the cancer that has spread to her lungs. She's experiencing some side effects from the drug, like long hours of sweating, tiredness, and sometimes loss of appetite. Otherwise, she's still functional.

All the pujas and tsa-tsas you advised earlier for her have already been done at Kopan Monastery. She's reciting the names of the Thirty-five Buddhas herself every day. I would like to ask if there are any additional pujas or practices that can be done for her.

Thank you.
Elizabeth

Rinpoche's second letter, September 2006

My very dear Elizabeth,
Thank you very much for your email. I am very sorry about your mother’s sickness.

1. Please recite the attached text three times a day for one month. This text will benefit the sick and people who are old and are dying. This text is extremely good for anyone who is sick or to prolong life.
2. She should take three inner offering pills for four months.
3. You should burn these blessed pills from His Holiness the Dalai Lama, which he blessed during retreat, twice a day for three days near her.
4. She should take Precious Pill Moon Crystal, three a week for three weeks (have a two-day break between pills).

Then, she should take a few drops of blessed water each day. The blessed water is from:

• Mount Kailash
• Maratika (holy place of Padmasambhava)
• Lake Manasarovar in Tibet. From tasting this you will be reborn in the pure land of Vajrayogini.
• Pabongka Rinpoche’s cave in Tibet. This is where Pabongka Rinpoche had a vision of Heruka and the water dripping in this cave is in the sound of Vajrayogini mantra.
• Lawudo Lama’s cave
• Potala Palace in Tibet
• Wu-Tai Shan Mountain in China—extremely precious water
• Reting in Tibet

I am also making prayers for her. Also, I have asked the Sangha in my house to dedicate a few months of animal liberations for her (they do three a month). Also, they are dedicating long life tsa-tsas to her.

With much love and prayers...